Assess, Adapt, Survive
by AlcatrazDGold
Summary: After being put into stasis for so long what awaits those who return to their home, to their cities, to their lands. Is there anything to even return to? When you have nothing is there anything worth fighting for? Or is it simply human nature to fight to survive regardless of how hard it might be. That's what it means to be human, right?
1. Chapter 1: Assess

**Chapter 1 - Assess, Adapt, Survive**

 **/_\**

[Cryo Stasis System Disengaging Pods 1 - 5000]

[Initiate Protocol A-66]

[Error Detected: Life Signs Diminished Within Stasis Pods]

[Checking Life Support: Failed - Error Detected]

[Checking Database: Success]

[Checking Internal Systems For Errors: Failed]

[Cause: Unknown]

[Request Attempted Self Repair]

[Request Approved Automatically: Confirmed]

[Initiate Self System Diagnostic]

[Self System Diagnostic Attempt(s): 1048]

[Failed Attempt(s): 1048]

[Self Repair Failed]

[Re-Orientate System To New Primary Objective]

[New Objective: Assist remaining survivors in repairing bunker systems]

[Pod 1 - 250 Scanned: Life Signs Detected: 1]

[Initiate Pod Reactivation]

 **/_\**

The lights flicked on for only a brief moment before going off again, lighting a massive dull concrete room before cloaking it in darkness again. From wall to wall lay stasis pods, two hundred and fifth pods lay side by side. Of those two hundred and fifty pods the lights on each of their control panels turned red. Only one pods light turned green signaling for the pod to be tilted upward at an angle.

The single remaining pod initiated its thawing process, the vents on the side releasing the cold air held within. Pipes along the side slowly drained the water from the melting ice, as the ice thinned and the temperature rose within warm air was vented into the steel pod.

After an hour of the thawing process the occupant inside began to stir from their long stasis nap.

The pod door cracked open causing steam to burst out, the pod opened slowly. The occupant shakily leaned up from the pod placing their hands on the edges to help lift themselves up.

As the occupant stepped out of the pod a female machine sounding voice rang out from the speaker system specifically attached to this metal and glass pod the occupant had just gotten up from.

"Greetings Lieutenant Rowin Mason. Recommendation: Refrain from doing any strenuous activity for the next two hours to allow your body to regain full motor skills." The occupant now identified as Rowin sat himself down slowly on the edge of the open pod. He wasn't going to rush after just waking up from cryo sleep but he certainly wasn't going to laze around either.

Rowin was a twenty five year old male who stood at six foot exactly and was of extreme physical fitness. As pilots should be. Rowin had short brown hair, deep blue eyes, a long face with sharp features. He had a small scar on his chin which wasn't covered by his facial hair. The only other notable feature was the tattoo on his left shoulder depicting a shark and anchor attached by a rope. Not much else stood out in terms of appearance alone.

"BK, what's the sitrep." Rowin stated as he allowed his body to become accustomed to moving again. He loosen his joints by stretching on the cold steel floor. His body although not in any immediate pain was still a bit weak. Some food would be a good course of action once he was finished with his current objectives.

"Systems damaged, majority of systems down. Primary systems offline, reserve power used for basic actions." The voice of the artificial intelligence known as BK-4. The name was more complex than BK-4 but BK would service for now. BK simply referring to the AI used for this bunker. "Sectors two through five are depleted of power. Recommendation: Head toward the main control room immediately with your personal AI and assess the mainframe to get a more in-depth analysis on the current situation." BK then went quiet, nothing more to say.

"Of course.." BK clearly wasn't built to consider what it said or how it said it. Rowin paused, "Damage…" If the systems were damaged this could be a disaster if it wasn't seen too immediately. He lifted himself up from his seat and made his way to his personal locker in the room across from this one. As he approached the door to the room it opened automatically.

"Luckily the doors still work." He mumbled to him before swiftly walking out of the room and across the dark corridor that divided the two rooms. Glancing both ways down the corridor as he did he noticed there were no active lights apart from a glowing red light at the end to signify a corner.

The reinforced door to the cryo stasis room sealed itself once Rowin had passed through safely. A countermeasure to a degree, the door can't be opened from the outside unless given a command to through the security control room. Nobody was getting in there without permission.

The poorly lit corridor and darkness that surrounded him made Rowin feel uneasy, ' _How damaged are the systems…_ ' he thought to himself before entering into the next room. As he released his breath it immediately turned misty, showing how cold it was inside these corridors. It certainly wasn't supposed to be like this either but that one went unnoticed by Rowin.

This room was similar to the other room in terms of size but this one was filled with lockers. Rows of lockers lay before Rowin, remembering his designation code P-6 he followed the codes written on the locker doors until he found his personal storage locker.

It wasn't locked, simply open it with a handle. No need for locks, there was nothing in here that couldn't be replaced.

Is what some people believed anyway.

Within the locker were Rowins uniform, personal communications equipment and a sidearm. The uniform consisted of boots, combats, a shirt and jacket, gloves, knee pads, harnesses and holsters. Rowin quickly changed from his _stasis wear_ to his uniform. It felt good to finally get back to his uniform.

The final pieces were of course his pilots helmet, an important aspect to any pilot. Rowin sat on the bench between the locker rows, his inactive helmet in hand as he slowly went over it, tracing its lines and observing its little art piece on the side, a small fond smile on his face.

 **6-4**

After that piece of nostalgia Rowin re-activated the helmet. The x-visor on the helmet turning blue indicating its activation. Without hesitation Rowin put the helmet on to see all the systems coming online.

That's when an all too familiar voice came on, "Basic Systems Online. RO-1242: Active. Hello Rowin." The male AI spoke out, you could almost hear the fondness in his robotic voice.

"Good to hear from you buddy." said Rowin as he rose from the bench. RO-1242 was his personal AI, his titans AI to be precise. A generation three, Ronin class titan. RO has been been with Rowin for years through his service as a pilot in the military, been with him since day one as a pilot and he's still here to this day.

"You too Pilot." RO greeted back, "Rowin, your first objective is to locate and meet with Major Reynold for new orders. He should be in the personal quarters with you currently." Rowin froze for a second before turning to look around the room, he found nobody. Rowin moved across each locker row in search of another person, again he found nothing. He'd only noticed it now after regaining some of his senses, he was alone.

This wasn't right, something was dead wrong.

"Somethings wrong RO, there's nobody else here." Rowin informed RO as he quickly made i back to his own locker to finish off collecting his gear. "What's the status on the other occupants?!"

"Unknown, I am currently disconnected from the bunker system. I have limited information. Pilot, I suggest you head toward the bunkers command room, the information should be stored in the mainframes database." RO instructed, Rowin quickly following the instructions as he took off in a sprint out of the locker room into the hallway. He paused for only a second to remember which way the command room was before sprinting off in that direction.

He knew he wasn't getting into the cryo stasis containment room from the outside, he'd be better off going right for the source of the information.

Everywhere Rowin went along the way was dark, barely lit by reserve lights. Completely silent apart from the sound of his feet hitting the cold steel floor. With the speed Rowin could travel it took him less than a minute to sprint across the bunker complex to the command centre.

Rowin was worried, he was the only one active right now. It shouldn't be like that, two hundred and fifty people were supposed to be active but it was only him.

Reaching the door he was forced to stop, the huge steel reinforced door groaned, opening painfully slow.

Peeking through the opening of the door Rowins worries were only increased as he observed the stage of the room. Walking in he was greeted by smoldering computer systems, wires hung from the ceiling, pieces of sheared steel and crumbled rock and worn down computer parts. The room was largely destroyed but some of the systems remained functional.

The largest piece of destruction was that a quarter of the room was torn in two and shifted upward. Like what an earthquake could do.

Rowin surveyed the damage as he proceed over to the main console in the room, he wiped the dust off the screen. "Please fucking work." He pressed one button on the main console, all the functional systems began to come to life.

Rowin sighed, that was lucky.

[Warning - Major Systems Failing - Commence Emergency Repairs Immediately]

It was the bunker AI BK giving the warning, it's voice slowly dying off as it reached the end of its sentence. However, for the moment Rowin ignored BKs warning.

"Rowin, connect my AI to the bunkers main system." RO spoke up, without hesitation Rowin found a compatible port and connected his AI to the internal system.

The screen in front of Rowin went crazy with numerical code. "This might take a minute, the damage done is catastrophic." RO warned Rowin.

Rowin tilted his head down, leaning on his outstretched arms against the metal frame the systems were mounted to. A sense of inescapable dread flowed through his body, a cold chill ran up his spine.

"Connection Complete, accessing system data now." RO attempted to keep Rowin informed on the process made thus far.

A minute passed of just the low, almost inaudible, hum of the computer in front before RO gained his Pilots attention.

"Systems accessed."

"How bad is it?"

"Insufficient Power throughout the bunker. Only basic systems are active. Doors, reserve lights, central computer mainframe and database." RO listed off a few of the still operational functions. "New recommended objectives: Restore main power, communication systems to be established and repairs to main systems be made."

"What caused all this damage?" Firstly he wanted to know what the hell was the cause of this mess. If it was a security breach this bunker was in serious trouble as well as the surviving occupants that were still in stasis.

"Unknown but the strongest suspect is an earthquake. The last system logs were recording during a recorded earthquake. The chances lie with an earthquake disrupting the system and damaging the bunker. Security logs suggest there has been no activity between then and now. Meaning the damage done to his bunker has not created an opening to the surface." Rowin somewhat suspected an earthquake, he'd seen the type of devastation an earthquake could cause but it was good to know there was no breach to the surface.

There was a brief pause before the next question, "RO, status update on the other cryo pods in sector 1, first activators."

"Status: 250 pods, Reactivated pods: 1. Life signs detected in remaining 249 pods:.." RO paused for a moment himself, "0."

"And what about the other four thousand, seven hundred and fifty pods…" But Rowins gut feeling told him everything he needed to know so he braced himself, he was a soldier, bad news was a common occurrence.

"Of the 4750 remaining stasis pods of sectors 2 to 5, life signs detected: 281."

The pilot stood up straight dropping his hands to his sides as he went silent.

"Pilot?"

"Solid copy RO." Rowin just gave a regretful sigh, he knew death was a common unavoidable occurrence but he'd just hoped he wouldn't see it so soon. "Who is the highest ranking official now. Who do we report this too?" With the majority of people gone a new leader would have to be selected.

"Protocol H1: If leading personnel are to be dispatched then the next highest ranking official is to be promoted to the required rank. According to the background data on the other remaining pod occupants, the highest ranking official currently still active is Lieutenant Rowin Mason," He explained to his pilot, "Congratulations on the promotion to Major, Pilot. Although I wish it were by other circumstances." He regretfully informed his friend.

"Me too RO, me too." Now wasn't the time to mourn, that time will surely come, especially when the remaining survivors awake within the next few days. He had other issues to deal with until then and he wasn't going to let anything else go wrong on his watch.

"You mentioned our new objectives. Give me the details."

 **/_\**

Rowin walked down yet another dark corridor, this time heading toward the armoury. RO had evaluated the situation and determined they had three main objectives. The two primary objectives were to restore power and establish communications. Unfortunately this meant Rowin was going to the surface. He was going out alone and blind, the systems used to map the surface above was currently unpowered so Rowin would have to go survey the area and complete his objective mostly unassisted, part from having RO on his helmet radio.

After the briefing on the current objectives Rowin left RO to clean up the system internally while he prepared to go topside. Rowin first went to get some food, well if you could call it that. It was tasteless nutrition bars, has everything you need from food without the flavour.

After that Rowin was guided by RO to gather the essential equipment for the mission. First was a simple ion battery, it was going to be used to store power from other sources and then brought back to the bunkers reactor to kick start its main systems again, the other piece was a set of four deployable communication antenna. They were the size of a pancake when undeployed but once activated an antenna is opened on the device. This was to help resort communication systems by deploying amplifiers and receivers atop the highest locations around. He was advised to deploy them far from one another for the best coverage so that was what Rowin would do.

Once that was out of the way Rowin was advised by RO to arm himself before going topside. It was unknown what exactly waited them, where machines still around? Animals? What remained of the worlds environment? Questions neither of them could answer until they got up there.

Reaching the armoury Rowin knew exactly what to arm himself with, finding himself a R-201 carbine. He hastily modified it by adding an acog scope and a suppressor. This would be his primary weapon but he'd hoped he wouldn't be needing. This was also a recon mission, survey the land and map the area. Fighting wasn't on the to-do-list.

But it was better to have it and not need it then need it and not have it.

So Rowin continued to supply himself. Grabbing a B3 Wingman as his personal sidearm of choice, a mini archer rocket launcher for packing a punch when needed, his jump kit and his personal pilot kit.

Being a pilot Rowin had a number of useful tools at his disposal. Equipping himself with a grapple hook attachment for ease of climbing, a cloaking device for stealth and a set of pulse blades.

As well as maybe a medic just incase and a few nutrition bars.

Once kitted out for his mission Rowin left the armory heading toward the lift entrance. He was ready to resurface. Although Rowin was usually good at keeping his cool he still felt off about seeing the surface again. What awaited him? Good or bad? He didn't know.

As he proceeded onto the lift, it shook to life as it began to slowly ascend.

This bunker was hundreds of feet below the surface. A few bunkers were hastily built in a secret attempt to preserve humanity from the machines that came to wipe us out. Only a few were created in time with the little resources humanity had left to spare from the war. This facility had literally everything they'd need. From its own reactor to indoor grow beds for food.

The plan was to have small colonies of five thousand people stored in bunkers to be awaken after a predesignated time had passed. The first two hundred and fifty people were the higher ranking individuals, military, chief scientists and engineers, etc. They were to awaken first so they could prepare for when the next larger group were to awaken, a process so to speak.

But that has gone to shit now that only 5.56% of the original five thousand remain. The news was going to be a hard pill to swallow for the others once they've awakened.

"Pilot," RO chimed in over Rowins helmet radio, "I'll be assisting you through your helmet radio."

"Understood, I'll be topside for awhile correct?" Reaffirming what he already knew.

"Correct. The operational timeframe is three days topside before returning to the bunker." Replied RO.

"Copy that, so I have three days to restore power outside the bunker and get that these antenna deployed around the area."

The lift began groaning to a halt as he reached the enormous reinforced doors which got Rowin to immediately straight up, ready to move once it opened.

But to Rowins surprise as the door opened a large portion of sand flowed to his feet. Glancing to his feet and then back to the door that was still covered by sand, he sighed.

"Is there an issue pilot?" RO inquired over the radio.

"Sand, lots of it." Was all Rowin replied with.

"Push past it pilot, time is of the essence." If you could see Rowins face he'd would have eye rolled at his comrades comment. That was easy for him to say.

Climbing up the sand pile Rowin crouched near the top of the pile and started digging upward trying to breach the surface. He wasn't going to waste time clearing the whole thing, he just needed to get out.

Ten minutes of digging past before Rowin spotted sunlight, pushing through the gap he breached the surface of the sand and was greeted by a surprising view.

Getting to his feet he surveyed the land around him. In the distance was a devastated city, torn apart by the war and erosion, reclaimed by nature judging from the trees that stood taller than some of the buildings. Sand surround him for miles only being broken when the occasional rocky outcrop popped up.

"What the fuck happened…" He mumbled to himself, once he made an observation of the surroundings he turned back to face the city. ' _That's where I need to head first._ '

Rowin made a mental note of the location he was currently stood as to remind himself where the bunker was. ' _Five klicks south of the city, west of a set of rocks burried in the dunes._ '

"Alright RO, I'm moving out." He informed his friend as he took off in a sprint toward the city, couldn't waste time.

"Good luck pilot."

* * *

 _C1: End_

 _So yeah, I made part of this one day and forgot about it so I decided to finish ad post it. I have an idea of where this story is going to go but it's mainly about exploring the destroyed world of Nier Automata and trying to survive._

 _I don't aim to be completely accurate to both worlds lore, I'll try not to destroy the lore either. I just wanted to see if I could make something between the two and this was sort of the result._

 _I decided that people can also make characters for this story. It's not really a SYOC so to speak but if you want to add yourself or a character you make to the story I'm open to the idea. You make yourself whatever you want really. Pilot, Another kind of special forces unit, Bunker Civilian (Pick your own job), Turn yourself into an Android (Whatever kind you want). Up to you, I'll just be open to it._

 _The main character though is obviously Rowin for now so we'll be following him for awhile._

 _That's it for now, I've rambled on for long enough. Thanks for reading._

 _AlcatrazDGold - Till the next chapter…_


	2. Chapter 2: Adapt

**Chapter 2 - Not Alone**

 **/_\**

The wind gave a soft whistle as it passed through the desolate and bleak streets. The world seemed too quiet. A great city like this so silent, Rowin could hardly believe it but here he was, seeing it all with his own eyes.

He continued his brisk pace walking along the shade of one of the large buildings, scanning the area for any signs of life or movement.

' _How long has it been…_ ' Rowin couldn't help but think to himself. It was disturbing to think about how long it must of been for the world to end up like this. Although he hoped the whole world wasn't like this he figured the odds weren't in that ideas favor.

Rowins gaze shifted to a building that peek over the top of the buildings in front of him. Examining the building from this distance it seemed suitable to deploy one of the communication antenna on its roof.

Rowin stopped moving and slide into a small crevice in the building next to him. "RO, I've found a suitable building to deploy one of the antenna. Moving to its position now." He informed his AI comrade.

"Copy that Pilot." RO replied, "Once the antenna is deployed it'll take several minutes to activate before it will begin full operation. During that time you need not stand by, its system is automated."

"Understood, I'll move to locate a power source to charge the ion cell or move to another position to deploy another antenna." Rowin paused for a second, "You'll inform me when the first antenna comes online correct?"

"Affirmative, I'll notify you as soon as it appears online."

Rowin picked up his pace to a brisk jog. He'd discovered no other signs of life besides that of grass and trees on his mission thus far. The world seemed empty without the activity of humans, it was eerie to say the least. To know what came before all this to see it like it was now, the earth still going without humanity, it truly made one understand how small humanity was on the grand scale of things.

That thought would stay with Rowin for the remainder of his life.

Rowin slowly approached the tower that he thought would be a sufficient spot to deploy the first antenna. He reached the base of the building and crotched down to survey behind him to see if anything was around him.

Of course he saw nothing but he still had to check. His instincts screamed at him to remain vigilant during this operation. His gut told him something was out there.

Rowins attention shifted to the building again, he stared toward the top. The size of the building blocked out the sun from this angle making the tower seem foreboding as he stood in its shadow.

Rowin took a step back and ran toward the building, he jumped, his jump kit boosting him through the second story window.

As he landed on the inside dust kicked up from under his feet, briefly surrounding his feet.

Rowin immediately trained his rifle down the corridor. He'd landed in one of the corridors of the structure which was probably the best place to end up instead of being in one of the rooms that may have been blocked off.

Rowin inspected the corridor he found himself in, it seemed structurally sound but he'd go up through the building to reach the roof. He knew he could have gotten to the top quicker if he used his grapple hook but this way allowed him to see the internal structure of the building. Rowin wasn't going to deploy the antenna on a building that was likely to collapse.

The inside of the building was dark, so dark that it was hard to see, no sunlight entered the building because of the surrounding buildings blocking the light so Rowin pressed a button on his helmet activating its light system. His x visor shown down the hallway, illuminating it.

Rowin moved swiftly but cautiously down the corridor looking for the stairwell. Every door he passed he pointed his rifle in to make sure nothing jumped him.

He proceeded down the hall turning a corner once he reached the first corridors end. As Rowin located the stairwell he stopped as he noticed something in the trash and debris on the ground. He crouched down before he swatted a piece of wood out of his way. Underneath he found a small cloth doll. The thing was practically in bits, barely held together by a few threads.

Rowin paused, his thoughts going back to the family he left behind when he volunteered to be put into stasis. The only family he had left, his younger sister.

"Pilot," RO spoke out dragging Rowin from his thoughts. "Have you reached the roof of the first building yet?" RO inquired.

"Negative," Rowin replied, shaking himself from his thoughts, his tone of voice changing slightly from his usual one. "I'm ascending the stairwell to the roof now. I'll only be another minute or so."

"Copy that." RO paused, "I know it must be hard, but you have to keep going Rowin." RO added on. Rowin sighed, RO could somehow tell when something was bothering him. This time was no different it seemed.

"I know RO, I know." He replied, "I'll update you when I get to the roof." The chatter between them went silent again allowing Rowin to retain his attention entirely on his surroundings.

Rowin stood from his crouch and walked up to the stairwell, he slowly advanced onto the next floor, swiftly checked the corridor before moving on.

He repeated this for each floor, however Rowin was swift about it, it only took a minute to get through the building floor by floor.

As he approached the final part of the stairwell leading to the roof Rowin swiveled on the spot and trained his rifle down the corridor. His visor lighting the dark hall.

His sights rested on a small tin can rolling across the floor. The sound of it had caught his attention.

As the small can rolled to a halt Rowin still remained trained on the other end of the hall. Something had moved the can, something caused it to roll.

Rowin stayed for a few more seconds before slowly backing his way up the stairs, keeping his attention on the hall for as long as he could.

Once out of sight he moved quickly up the stairs to a locked door. The door provided little resistance as Rowin just kicked the rusty, damaged door of its hinges.

He stepped out onto the roof over to the far edge, the side facing the opposite way he'd come from. Rowins gaze turned to the vast bleak and empty city in front of him. He still found it hard to swallow, seeing how the city and world around him was. If only he could find out how this all happened.

"RO, I've reached the roof. Deploying the first antenna." Rowin informed his friend, he pulled the first small antenna from his small pack on his back. He moved over to one of the corners of the building. One that faced further into the city specifically.

"Copy that Pilot. The deployment shouldn't give you issue, once it comes online I'll inform you." RO countered.

It took Rowin a minute but after slowly following the devices guide he managed to deploy it. Once activated an antenna arose from within the small device, small clamps deployed from the sides of it and anchored it to the ground they stood on. The clamps dug into the concrete, making sure nothing could easily dislodge it.

"Systems coming online," RO spoke up over the radio, "Communication link strengthened, mapping system of the area engaged." A almost inaudible sound echoed out of the device for a few seconds. A sonar device that would help map out the region or at least part of it.

Rowin stood waiting for the all clear from RO to move off to another location, his attention turned to the city once more but this time he was scanning for another suitable deployment site.

A few seconds passed before RO contacted Rowin again. "Pilot, deployment was a success. All systems are online and active at full capacity. Well done." He congratulated his pilot. Not much of an achievement normally but given the situation anything going right was a big plus.

"Solid copy RO, searching for a suitable location from this vantage point." Rowin used his helmets enhanced zoom to scan the area, just as he spotted a point across the city RO quickly spoke up, interrupting him.

"Pilot, the mapping system picked up some large movement not far from your current location. Unidentified individuals in the region." This immediately got Rowins attention. So there _was_ something out there.

"Can you give me a heading?" Rowin asked, quickly scanning the city around him to see if he could see any commotion.

"North, Six degrees."

Rowin turned in that direction. He couldn't spot anything from up atop the building.

"Do you wish to investigate?" RO asked, speaking up again, "Our objective might be to restore power to the bunker and establish communications we should still investigate the environment to establish hostile and friendly inhabitants in the region. We should assess hostile forces in the area for the safety of the bunker."

"Shouldn't we complete our main objectives first? Those were the emergency orders given to personel if the bunker was ever in danger." Although Rowin would like to prioritise this pretty high up as well. It was important to learn of their current environment and its inhabitants.

"Correct, we should follow those objectives but as a newly appointed Major and the highest ranking official active you have the authority to divert resources if you so desire."

This got Rowin to smirk, RO damn well knew he wanted to investigate. If there was a chance there was other life out there Rowin wanted to know. RO knew that too so he told him exactly what he wanted to here.

"Thanks RO," He began his sentence with, "Alright, as I do not want to jeopardize the operation we'll only allow for a few hours of recon. Our objective is to find any trace of life out there." Rowin knelt down at the edge and peered down to the ground below. It was a small courtyard green surrounded by buildings, a few trees grew all around. It looked like a small oasis in this deserted landscape.

"Copy that Pilot, good luck." RO replied before going silent again.

With that Rowin stood from his crouch and positioned himself at the edge of the building before lightly hopping over the edge.

Rowin skid down the wall, his left hand and feet slowing his descent as they torn down the buildings wall. Although he attempted to slow himself he still picked up a considerable amount of momentum, just as he reached the third story of the building he kicked off its wall.

Gaining air Rowin quickly plummeted another few feet before finally activating his jump kit. The burst slowed his downward momentum to an almost complete stop so using his forward momentum he landed with a small roll to disperse that remaining force before finishing on his feet.

Never gets old.

Rowin quickly recovered and took off into a sprint in the direction his scanners indicated for him. He wouldn't admit it out loud but his mind was going a mile a minute with the thoughts and ideas of what this could be. He was almost throwing caution to the wind right now, not the best idea but if he didn't hustle it he could miss out on this opportunity.

"RO, any input into what we might find?" Rowin asked as he jumped over a medium sized crevasse that obstructed his path, paying it no mind as he did.

"While we do hope it's other humans causing this commotion it's quite possible it could be nothing more than animal life, it would be hard to fathom all animals being wiped out." RO replied, "Be prepared however as it might be machines as well. We're unsure if all this commotion that was picked up was just movement or a battle broke out."

Rowin had to agree, he'd have to be ready for whatever was waiting for him. "Understood."

"Proceed with caution Rowin." RO added on quickly before going silent once more.

It took Rowin less than thirty seconds to close in on the location. He'd sprint at his top speed the whole way, jumping on the walls to bypass obstacles on route. He used his grapple hook to swing himself around the corner of a building completely skipping a series of debris and rubble that blocked the paths and roads.

The skills of a pilot certainly come in handy.

Rowin slowed right down once he reached the edge of one building, he stacked up at the corner and halted.

"RO, I'm in position." He just wanted to inform him before heading in. He got an _understood_ as a response.

Rowin took one more second before rounding the corner, his rifle pointed forward. What greeted him was a small grassy courtyard, covered on all sides by tall buildings. A series of trees grew out sporadically around the area, some of them growing nearly as tall as the buildings. It was an impressive sight but Rowin didn't pay that much mind as he advanced into the courtyard, slow and steady.

His attention was on the scraps of machines parts, still sizzling and sparking. It was a machine massacre, pieces lay scattered all around them.

Rowin continued on, slowly surveying the site as he moved through it, examining the damage done. From what he could comprehend from the devastated remains was there was a lot of slash and scorch marks. No bullet holes however, whatever did this wasn't armed with conventional guns.

"RO," He lowly called out, "It's a graveyard out here, everything is destroyed."

"Movement in the area died down mere seconds before you arrived. Whoever did this could still be nearby. Don't let your guard down."

Rowin didn't need to respond to that and RO knew it, he'd let him focus on the task at hand.

He leaned down onto one knee, he subtly glanced around his environment to see if he could spot anything suspicious. He quickly rummaged through a small splattering of broken machine pieces. He stopped and picked up a machine eye. It was offline but in one piece, he rolled it around in his hand for a moment, giving it a once over.

 _ **Rumble**_

Rowin swiveled on the spot, aiming off to his right side, training his carbine onto an area of a third floor building. The walls on that floor had already been destroyed so he could see inside from his current position.

His eyes glanced to the base of the building to see where a chunk of rubble had hit the ground, kicking up some dust.

' _I'm not alone…_ ' Rowin thought to himself, his gut instinct was screaming at him about something being off. His instincts weren't normally wrong either, they couldn't be, not with the type of work he has done in the past.

A moment of silence descended on the courtyard as Rowin had a standoff with whatever was out there.

That silence was broken as Rowin heard the sound of something fast approaching from behind reached his ear. Rowin didn't waste time turning around, instead opting to leap forward.

He'd made the right call as he could hear the sound of something strike the ground behind him. Mid roll Rowin shifted his body and ended up facing the direction he'd leapt from.

Not getting a chance to see who was attacking he had to react fast as his mind focused on what seemed like a sword fast approaching.

He fired off a burst of three rounds at his assailant causing them to cease their charge and have to avoid the shots. Which they did, barely.

Using this opportunity Rowin fired off a set of rounds at his assailant as they retreated to cover. His shots connected in a few small areas such as grazing a leg and arm but no letal shots hit.

Rowin was about to retreat back himself to cover whilst keeping an eye on where his opponent had disappeared behind when he caught movement out the corner of his eye, a side on attack.

Using his jumpkit Rowin threw himself backwards and propelled himself out of harm's way of another attack. He landed on his back with a decent impact, almost knocking the wind out of him, his helmet bumping off some debris that laid behind him, as what seemed like another sword swung at where he had just been standing.

"RO! We got hostiles!" He yelled to his friend, not that it could do much good at the moment, he wasn't getting any backup.

Not getting off his back Rowin lay there before training his carbine on the second assailant. He fired off a burst of three shots, this being a quick shot he had aimed for centre mass however this assailant was lifted from its feet as something tackled it out of harm's way.

The two assailants landed a good distance away from Rowin but Rowin wasn't going to let them off easy. As they both quickly recovered and lifted themselves off the ground Rowin fired off another set of shots. One of the assailants had grabbed the other and hurled both themselves over a larger piece of broken machine. The rounds penetrated the machines armor on this side but he couldn't tell if they went through.

Rowin jumped up off the ground and rolled over a piece of cover himself putting more distance between the two groups. He peered over his cover to see if he could spot them but he couldn't.

Rowin was so focused on staying alive in this firefight that he almost missed something really important. They were speaking.

All he heard was a female voice saying, "That was reckless." Sounded almost like it was a scolding tone.

Rowin paused as he heard that faint sound, "A voice…" He whispered to himself, peering over to where his assailants had gone.

Thinking fast Rowin pulled out a pulse blade and hurled it into a piece of machine scrap. His helmets visor lit up as the blade let fourth its pulses. To his surprise the pulse blade revealed there was nobody behind the cover so Rowin quickly looked around him. During his brief moment of pause they'd moved out of that very cover to a new location.

"Dammit!" He spoke to himself. Rowin knew this wasn't an advantagous position he found himself in so he activated his cloak turning completely invisible as he quietly walked out of the opening in the courtyard.

A silence once again returned to the courtyard as that small scuffle came to a sudden end.

Nearly a full minute passed before two figures emerged from the shadows, a sword in their hand, slowly examining the now empty courtyard.

"Where did it go?" A male voice asked in surprise, a little bit of curiousity came out in his tone. He stepped further forward into the courtyard looking for where their target had gone.

"I don't know but remain on guard." The female voice quickly shutting him down, she seemed more focused on the current situation than her male comrade.

The female, however, was about to wish she'd be more cautious as a shot ran out and clang of it hitting her sword handle. Her grip, although tight, wasn't prepared for it to be shot out of her hands.

"Don't move!" A voice called out, the male of the two turned in surprise looking at his comrade while the female did as she was told and remained still.

Two feet behind her Rowin uncloaked, his rifle trained on the females head.

"Drop the sword!" Rowin barked out, directed to the male of the two, as he took in their appearance. It dawned on him that they were human! Or at least looked human anyway. One was a female dressed in some kind of black dress with pieces of white scattered across her outfit, high heels, gloves and a blindfold. She had short white or silver like hair similar to the male that stood further away.

The male was also dressed in black and white like his comrade with pale skin as well however Rowin didn't care much for how they looked. Right now they were his enemy as they had attempted to kill him, the fact the male still had his sword didn't make this any better but he still held onto it.

The two looked between each other, he couldn't see what the female looked like but the look on the males face showed what seemed like genuine surprise.

"I repeat, who are you?!" Rowin asked again, slightly louder than last time.

The male seemed to ease off, clearly not wanting to endanger his ally. A small nod was exchanged between the two which Rowin didn't like. He kept his guard up, fully aware that these two might not be the only ones here.

"I'm 2B" The female began, "This is 9S." She stated matter of factly.

…

That was it? Better than nothing.

"Why did you attack me?" Rowin continued, that first question gave him nothing.

"That's what we do." The female continued to answer for them both. The male, known as 9S, remained still, he seemed to concede that they were no longer fighting but having a conversation. If you could call a hostage situation a conversation as well.

Again, that didn't give Rowin anything. Much to his frustration.

"Was it you two who did all this?" Rowin briefly pointed at the carnage of the courtyard before aiming his carbine back at 2Bs head.

"Correct." 2B answered, a short and sweet answer it seemed.

"Alright," Rowin glared at the female through his helmet, "Are you both human or machines?

This one got a visual reaction out of them, one of confusion though.

"Neither." 2B responded.

What? Neither? Than what were they?

Rowin remained focused instead of debating the answers to these questions. "Then why attack me? I'm no harm to you if you aren't a hostile machine."

"It's our purpose to destroy machines." This time it was the male, 9S, that responded to Rowin. He took a sublte step forward but Rowin reacted by pushing the barrel of his carbine closer to 2Bs head. This sent the right message to 9S as he stopped in his tracks.

Rowin shifted on the spot before continuing, "Well I'd hate to tell you but I'm not a machine, I'm human."

There was a pause, by the look on 9Ss face as he turned to look at 2B it seemed that that genuinely surprised them both. 9S turned back to Rowin as 2B shifted slightly to face Rowin.

"What?"

"What?"

* * *

 _C2: End_

 _Chapter two down, sorry for the wait. Life has just been busy so all my stories have slowed in production for the last two months. I hope I can get the next chapter out soon but I can't say anything until I get past my exams in December. I should be able for more frequent updates after that._

 _Anyway, glad I got this done. Had fun trying to write a good skirmish between them while I tried to keep both combat styles there._

 _By the request of several people through PM I added a poll to my profile about whether or not I should add a Romance side plot to this story. I would have preferred to stay away from romance in this story but I guess that can't be avoided if so many people want that. So the poll will allow you to choose whether or not you want romance in this story and if you do you can pick who it is. Note: This is for who will be 'paired' with Rowin._

 _I guess that's a thing now..._

 _That's it for now, I've rambled on for long enough. Thanks for reading this chapter too._

 _AlcatrazDGold - Till the next chapter…_


	3. Chapter 3: Survive

**Chapter 3 - Friend or Foe**

 **/_\**

Rowin remained alert around these two, his rifle barrel not swaying an inch but for whatever reason their reaction seemed to confuse him. The boy, 9S, seemed way more shocked or surprised than his comrade, 2B. You could tell she was also unsure of what to say but at the moment, visually at least, she hid it well.

"Human?" The boy, 9S, spoke up from his stupor. He shifted on the spot, both of them looked between each other before looking back at Rowin.

Rowin didn't answer their question however, he was the one in control here so he'd ask the questions.

"So let me get this right," Rowin began, "You both engaged me in combat because you thought I was a machine?" He used his left hand to gesture across his body, "Do I really look like a machine to you?"

You could see 9S was getting slightly antsy where he stood, he actually surprised Rowin by dropping his sword.

"Did you just say your…" 9S stepped closer to Rowin, "Human?" Rowin didn't like how 9S got closed the gap between them but at least he'd dropped his weapon before hand, you still had to be sharp though, don't underestimate an unarmed foe. One's fists can be just as lethal.

"I am." Rowin replied, "Now what are you?" He expected a fair trade, he had to know what they were since they claimed to be neither human or machine.

"Androids." 2B answered for the both of them. "Members of YoRHa."

YoRHa? What was that exactly?

Androids too? Rowin had never seen androids like this before. They look far too human for that.

' _Has technology really come this far…_ ' Rowin thought to himself, but that was kind of hard to believe. He hadn't been in stasis for that long had he?

What was YoRHa? Why were androids deployed by this organization? Whos side were they on? They didn't seem to be on the side of the machines considering they were the ones that turned this place into a machine graveyard but they also attacked him saying they believed he was a machine. You'd have to forgive Rowin for being suspicious.

"Pilot," RO chimned in over the radio, he'd been listening the whole time to their conversation. "I don't seem to detect any sort of signs that they are lying to you thus far in the conversation however I advise you remain diligent with these two. We are unsure of their allegiance and motives." Luckily ROs voice could only be heard by Rowin, little did either 2B or 9S know Rowin had someone else listening in the whole time.

"YoRHa? Care to explain?" Rowin asked, to be honest it wasn't really a question it was more a demand phrased as a question. He was going to get to the bottom of this like RO suggested.

"You've never heard of YoRHa?" 9S asked in disbelief, you could tell he was struggling to understand the situation. The human thing must have really thrown him for a loop but why exactly did **that** of all things mess with him.

Before Rowin could answer his comrade, 2B, interrupted.

"9S enough," 2B slowly turned on the spot so both her face and body were directed Rowin, "You said you're human correct? You have yet to prove that to us, this could easily be a trick by a rogue android."

"Well, you have trust issues don't ya?" Rowin replied sarcastically, he wasn't much better off in that regard himself. To him it seemed obvious he was human, what the fuck else could he be?! But he'd have to see things from their point of view, he doubted they'd seen a Pilot before.

"Prove to us you're human then." It became clear that 2B didn't believe Rowin about being human for whatever reason.

Rowin took a single step back from the two, he released a somewhat heavy breath thinking of a way to prove it. He didn't really like the idea of removing his helmet, they could easily pull a fast one if he did. Plus he didn't want to lose contact with RO.

While both 2B and 9S waited for Rowins next move they seemed to look between each other, you could see the difference in their faces on what they thought of the situation.

"Kick your sword over to me." Rowin told them, both of them slightly confused as to what he was going to do.

2B was slightly more sceptical about giving a possible enemy her weapon but 9S abledged almost immediately by kicking his sword over to Rowin.

2B glanced at her comrade, her gaze obviously drilled into him by his reaction, her gaze making him slightly nervous for reasons unknown to Rowin.

"I'm curious…?" 9S attempted to defend himself, it didn't seem to sit perfectly well with his comrade though.

Rowin crouched down, his rifle never swaying off target, and picked up the sword. He held the sword in front of them both. Rowin took a quick mental note that the sword was actually well made and well taken care of.

"I hope you know what you're doing Rowin." RO said over the radio, he was connected to Rowins helmet visor since he was not active in his titan chassis. He'd provide whatever limited support he could, "Try to avoid injury as much as possible." As if knowing what Rowin was going to do.

"Hope this helps." Rowin turned the blade in his gloved hand, he pressed his left hand thumb into the blade of sword, he winced slightly at the deepish cut across his ungloved thumb. The confusion on both their faces said enough until Rowin pulled his thumb off the blade and dropped the blade behind him.

He held up his hand for the both of them and showed them the small trace of blood dripping from his thumb. Again both 2B and 9S looked surprised and somewhat stunned, it was more so 9S that was stunned, whether that was by the blood or Rowins action of simply cutting his own thumb he couldn't tell.

"This enough?" Rowin sarcastically asked.

"Can we…" 2B began, she sounded somewhat worried too if Rowin heard correctly, "Can we check for ourselves?"

9S moved to stand beside his comrade awaiting Rowins permission. They both appeared to relax, neither of them seemed to think Rowin was a threat. As if they no longer thought he was their enemy.

"What exactly do you mean?" Rowin questioned, he wasn't sure of what they wanted to do exactly.

"Pod-042," 2B called out, "Rendezvous on my position now."

Following his comrade 9S did the same, "Pod-153 to my position."

From within the scrap heap of machine corpses and parts two little rectangular boxes emerged, both of them quickly floated over to 2B and 9S, the white one closing in on 2B, the other black one over to 9S.

Now Pods Rowin recognised, they were around before he had been put into stasis but he also knew they could be armed for military purposes.

"Hold it!" Rowin called out to 2B and 9S both of them physically reacting to Rowins sudden command. He flicked his barrel from 2B to the Pod before going back to 2B, "I know those things can be armed. State what you're going to do with the both of them or I shoot."

9S put both his hands up slowly in a calming manner, "We're just going to get them to scan you, that's all. Isn't that right 2B?"

"Correct." 2B keeping it as brief as ever.

Rowin sighed to himself right as RO came to life over the radio. "Pilot, allow them this chance to confirm. If they truly aren't our enemies then they could prove to be strong allies."

He was right, they were the ones that turned these machines to scrap with everything said and done. Having that sort of potential strength on your side would prove beneficial.

Rowin gave both 9S and 2B a small nod, giving them permission to proceed with the scan. He didn't lower his carbine however, just in case.

"Pod, begin scanning." 9S commanded, both pods following the one command. The pods hovered over closer to Rowin just slightly ahead of 2B and 9S. The face of both the pods opened, small beams of light began to move across Rowins form.

Taking this moment of inaction Rowin looked over the two androids in front of him. He actually noticed how they looked now, taking in more of their detailed appearance. It was hard to believe they weren't human, they seemed so human like on the outside.

9S appeared to be a younger looking male, white hair and black attire. Boots, shorts, jacket and gloves. His mannerisms from how he conducted himself during their earlier conversations told Rowin he wasn't strictly assigned to combat. While he was dangerous with a blade combative situations might not be his speciality.

Now 2B confused Rowin, her appearance was odd, the skirt, top, gloves, high heels didn't exactly scream _built for combat_ but of the two she was more skilled it seemed. How she carried herself during this whole ordeal was far more lined up with that of a soldier than anything else. Even how she handled the questioning was clever, short simple but also vague answers. Her outfit didn't seem like that of a soldier though, Rowin couldn't help but glance over her entire body.

' _Who the fuck designed these uniforms…_ ' Rowin thought to himself, he'd put money is was on some sorry pervert or something.

The most confusing part though were the blindfolds, was exactly was that about?

"Scanning complete." The Pods said simultaneously, drawing Rowins attention once more.

Rowin didn't say anything, he instead opted to let 2B and 9S ask for the results. His focus was on how they were going to react to the news he was human.

The pods both displayed a human sized rectangle of Rowins scanned form, the data of his body coming up on screen. From his beating heart, lungs, brain and skeleton, all shown to prove he was of organic form and not mechanic. Some other small facts were shown too such as his body armor, weapons and helmet. The quick peek Rowin had of the data proved they also didn't have the full information because they couldn't identify his weapons and what exactly his helmet was in sufficient detail.

"Results confirm the target is human. Suggestion, contact command immediately to inform them of this revelation." One of the pods recommended.

Now for how they reacted, their first response was utter shock at the results. It didn't take much for Rowin to realize that these two had never met a human before. This was **not** good, that gave Rowin everything he needed to know about whether humans were still around or not.

But after that moment of shock it was 2B that reacted first, she stood straight up, a strong posture and placed both her hands behind her back.

"Forgive us for not believing you, sir." 2B said, she sounded a lot like a soldier when she did that. She didn't even move once she noticed 9S had yet to do anything. "9S." Her tone almost commanding in nature despite not actually giving a command to her comrade.

It took 9S a second but he too fell in line with 2B, both of them standing like soldiers would when their superior had entered the building. Even the two pods lined up alongside their respective android.

It took Rowin a moment but he had to admit this was odd, he slowly lowered his rifle and relaxed his aggressive stance.

"Sure." Rowin replied with, so they go from attacking him to asking for his forgiveness?

"So, it was genuinely a mistake for engaging me?" Rowin questioned again, ' _Lets see how they respond to questions now._ ' He thought.

"It was a grave error on our part sir." 2B answered, her tone clear and coherent. She was clearly not trying to hide anything anymore, answering questions like you would your commanding officer. She was also referring to him as a _sir_ so she could at least tell he was a human male.

9S grimaced for a moment as he realized something, "We're in so much trouble for engaging a human." 9S groaned out, "We're being reprogrammed for this..."

His out of nowhere comment got a response from 2B, "We shall accept whatever punishment we're given for what we have done." 2B scolded her comrade, "No complaints."

"Yeah yeah…" Was 9Ss counter.

2B directed her next question toward Rowin this time, "Sir, can we contact command and inform them of your current whereabouts?"

Dammit! Rowins desire to understand all this began to grow, he knew he had other objectives to complete but he wanted to know more about what was going on.

Giving her a nod she began speaking to her pod.

"Pod, contact 6O."

A display appeared in front of 2B directly, he wasn't sure but 2B might not realize he can see the data and information the pod pulls up on its holographic display. It might be a personal connection for each pod and android but Rowins helmet visor could also see this.

"2B!" A surprisingly cheerful voice responded over the pod communication, "What seems to be the issue?" This must be 6O on the line since that's what 2B called her.

"Put me through to the Commander, I have an urgent message for her." 2B responded.

"She's currently in contact with the resistance leader." The voice informed 2B, "I'm not sure how long she'll be-"

"We've made contact with a human on the surface." 2B interrupted, she was obviously not taking _no_ as an answer.

This whole time while Rowin was focused on 2B and her communicating with this 6O person he'd failed to notice until now that 9S was staring at him.

What Rowin found odd was the look of genuine curiosity and almost excitement from his body language coming from the male android. It was truly remarkable to think they were androids when they can mimic human emotion and body language like that.

"I'm sorry 2B, did you just say you found a human on the surface?" 6O questioned.

"Affirmative, we're sending the data of the individual over now." 2B responded, the pod automatically began transmitting the data to her operator. "We need to inform the Commander immediately."

"Ah.. Un.. understood." 6O stuttered, her surprise at the new evidence for all to hear it seemed. "I'll patch you through to the Commander in just a moment."

Little did Rowin know but his presence was going to cause some big changes to occur in the future. For right now though there was something going on in the YoRHa bunker he had no idea even existed.

 **/_\**

The command centre in the YoRHa bunker went about it's normal routine. The operators went about their scheduled contacts, shifting through new information and data and just generally doing what they did most days.

The Commander stood by her usual post I at the centre of the room, the screen in front of her was currently being used to communicate with the leader of the resistance, Anemone.

"Understood Commander." Anemone responded, "We'll move our people to assist with the recoverary."

"Good to hear, our people will be-" The Commander began but was interrupted by a certain operator.

"Commander!" The operator known as 6O called out, "I have an urgent message from units 2B and 9S on the surface." She obviously knew 9S was with 2B so she added him in to the message.

"How urgent is it 6O?" The Commander calmly asked as she turned toward the operator in question, "I'm discussing with the resistance our next major operation." The Commander carrying herself with her usual calm and collected persona.

You could see the resistance leader on the monitor quietly listening in, whether or not she was supposed to was another thing.

"Very urgent Commander." 6O informed her, "2B and 9S have encountered a human on the surface."

The room went silent, the other operators even stopping what they had been previously doing after hearing of a human being on the surface. Even the Commander was strangely silent after hearing the news.

"Show me." The Commander told her.

"Putting the data on screen now." 6O moved the data 2B and 9S had gotten from their scans of Rowin to the large screen. The screen split to allow for Anemone and the data to cover the screen equally.

The data on screen proved without a shadow of a doubt that 2B and 9S had encountered a human in the field.

Every operator ended up looking through the data themselves as well as the Commander. It took only a moment for the Commander to respond.

"Put me through to 2B and 9S this instant." She commanded, she turned to Anemone on screen. "I'm sorry Anemone but I'm going to have to have an abrupt end to this conversation." She told her ally.

"Uh.. yeah.. No problem Commander." Anemone responded as she disconnected the call on her end, allowing the Commander to focus on more **pressing** matters.

 **/_\**

Anemone stood by the communication equipment in the resistance camp. She had to comprehend what she just heard from that operator.

If she heard that right, YoRHa just encountered a **human** on the surface. How and why this human was found here is a mystery.

"A human huh…" Anemone spoke to herself. She'd have to prepare for this, this human could possibly be brought to the resistance camp at some point. Anemone would want in on this.

 **/_\**

2B and 9Ss pods lit up, a different voice spoke up though meaning this was no longer 6O that was talking to them.

"2B, 9S," The voice began, "Show me the human you've encountered, I'd like to speak with them."

"Yes Commander." 2B and 9S said simultaneously.

"Sir," 2B began speaking to Rowin, "Our Commander would like to speak with you."

"Fine by me." Rowin countered, right now this was all he could do if he wanted to understand the current situation the world was in. This Commander could provide some valuable intel.

The pod brought up a display of a blonde haired, green eyed woman in a white dress. She would be described as beautiful by a lot of people. Judging by the fact these two androids know of this person Rowin assumed this Commander was an android and not human.

"Sir, you can see this display correct?" 9S asked, making sure he could actually see the Commander, Rowin nodded at 9S to confirm he could see the woman on the display. He figured the human might not have the means to see these displays if they could only be seen by androids but apparently he was wrong.

Back on the Commanders end the main screen was split a real time view of Rowin and the scan data. Most of the operators found his appearance odd, some of them whispering between each other.

"I am the Commander of YoRHa, who is it I have the honor to speak with?" The Commander began, she seemed far more calm about this than either 2B or 9S.

Better now than later.

"Rowin, Liue-" Rowin paused, "Major Rowin Mason. Pilot." It was going to take some time to remember his new title. His introduction was small and simple but he wasn't sure what else to add. Did they really need to know a lot about him at the moment?

"Rowin…" 9S muttered to himself, at least he thought he did. He ended up saying it loud enough for everyone here to hear.

"9S…" 2B warned him with her tone, for what she was warning him about was unknown.

9S nervously smiled before fixing his posture and turning to silence again.

"Sir," The Commander started, "I'd like to give my most sincere apologies for not knowing you were on the surface earlier, if I had been informed earlier I would have sent units to safeguard you." An odd way to begin, "Please allow two of my finest soldiers to accompany you to a safer location. I'm sure you're aware of how dangerous it can be on the surface."

"I'm aware of the threats, yes." Rowin countered. By finest soldiers she must have been referring to 2B and 9S. Good to know he was in the presence of two of YoRHas finest.

"If we may we'd like to guide you to the resistance camp not far from your current location. I'd much rather continue our discussion once you're secure sir."

So they wanted to bring him to a secure location, did they value his life so much that they'd rather him be in a secure location instead of just speaking here?

"Pilot, we can't afford to make that detour at this exact moment." RO informed Rowin over the radio, not that he had to. Rowin thought the same thing.

"Negative Commander." Rowin shut her down much to the surprise of 2B and 9S, as well as everyone else Rowin didn't know was listening.

"Pardon sir?" Even the Commander found it odd for Rowin to decline the offer. She'd never been told no before like this, she had to admit she found it nice. **(AN: Think of that in the weirdest way possible-lol)**

"I'm currently tasked with my own objectives I can't afford to disregard my mission." Rowin attempted to keep his mission and the bunker as secretive as possible, for now the bunkers location should be kept a secret just in case this all turns out bad for him.

"Sir, we have capable soldiers that could complete whatever assignment you have taken on yourself." The Commander argued, she might have a valid point for all Rowin knew. Her soldiers might be capable but for now Rowin only trusted himself to get the job done. He'd rather do it himself instead of relying on others especially if they turn out to be his enemies.

"Commander," Rowin began surprising sternly, "I **must** complete these objectives as quickly as possible, I'm the only one who knows what must be done in sufficient detail so I'd rather just do it myself instead of order someone else to take over. I respectfully decline your offer to have another team do it."

Rowin couldn't tell through the communication system but the Commander was slightly frustrated with him. "I understand sir. I shall not prohibit you from your mission however I insist in allowing some of my soldiers to accompany you for your own safety. I will **not** allow harm to befall you sir."

"Unnecessary Commander, I can handle myself." Rowin attempted to argue.

"Non negotiable sir. 2B, 9S!" The Commander called out, the pods displayed focused in on the two androids. "New Orders, you're both to follow Major Rowin Mason on his mission. You are to protect him by **any** means necessary, you are to do **whatever** he asks of you. Understood?" Her tone commanding but smooth, you could see by how she speaks to people why she was the commander.

"Understood."

"Affirmative Commander."

2B and 9S replied respectively. Giving, what appeared to be, their salute.

"Glory to Mankind." They all said.

Now that was just plain freaky to Rowin, what kind of mantra was that?

The pod turned the Commander back toward Rowin, "Major Rowin Mason, take care while on this mission." The pod cut off communication stating the Commander had ended the connection.

"Pilot, it's time to refocus our efforts on the objectives concerning the bunker." RO stated.

"Copy that RO."

Rowin stepped toward both 2B and 9S, 2B immediately stiffened her posture, standing to attention. 9S however was more relaxed in his stance.

"We'll leave on your orders sir." 2B announced. "Pod, grab our weapons." The pods hovered over to their fallen weapons, picking them up and brought them back to 2B and 9S. 9S only being armed with his black sword while 2B was armed with a similar white sword but also a much larger rectangular blade.

9S seemed more excited for the assignment than 2B but 2B was taking this seriously, more militaristically in manner. It became obvious that 2B was for combat, 9S was for some other role. At the moment though Rowin didn't know for certainty.

It seemed Rowin wasn't going to be escaping either of them, if he tried to run he wasn't sure what they'd try to do exactly so for now they were on his **team**.

"Alright, follow behind me." Rowin instructed, "Watch our flanks."

"Understood sir." 2B replied as she moved to follow close behind, maybe a bit too close for comfort but it worked. 9S followed behind her, he appeared to be thinking to himself judging by the fact as he followed he was looking around him.

Rowin didn't realize it but 9S had so many questions for him, he'd take this time to pick which ones he wanted to ask first, or whatever questions 2B would allow.

This mission has changed.

* * *

 _C3: End_

 _Finished chapter three. Once again sorry for the wait, busy as always with life and other stories. I'll try make it up to all those who read this story by getting out another chapter real soon. I'm sure we're all busy this time year but I'll attempt to keep my word on this for you all._

 _I just wanted to add a quick note (Or three) that this takes place at some point during the game. Not before or after. By this point 2B and 9S have met A2 (Who'll show up soon enough) but Adam and Eve aren't a thing yet. From here the story of the game changes drastically so don't expect me to keep to the games full story. Somethings will happen, others won't._

 _I did mention before you can make a character for this story if you like, they' won't be the main character of the story but I'll try have them around as much as possible. Read C1 AN to know what I mean._

 _A reminder, there is a poll for the "Romance Side Story" in this fanfiction. If you want a say in this then go ahead and let me know by whatever means you want. Review, PM or a vote on the poll._

 _That's it for me then I guess, I've talked as much shit as I can for this AN section. See you all next time!_

 _AlcatrazDGold - Till the next chapter…_


	4. Chapter 4: Trust

**Chapter 4 - Valuable Intel**

 **/_\**

Rowin marched on through the deserted city, the only noise being made at this very moment was the sound of his footsteps on sand, dirt and concrete as he made his way to his objective. Following close behind him was 2B and behind her 9S.

Rowin seemed to now have a security detail watching over him for the duration of his mission, he wanted to protest but he came to the conclusion that it would just be a waste of time, time that could be spent doing anything else of greater importance.

Every now and then he'd glance behind him back at 2B and 9S, 2B seemed to be on alert, she didn't allow Rowin to put much distance between himself and her. While it seemed like a good gesture Rowin would have prefered he have his space to operate.

But for now he'd push that to the back of his mind, he wanted to prioritize his current objectives relating to the bunker.

It had only been twenty minutes since Rowin had been introduced to this YoRHa Commander as well as 2B and 9S, although he didn't get a whole lot of information from their exchange he did learn that they were androids not machines. While a little skeptical at first Rowin could comprehend them being androids, they were far more advanced than any androids he'd ever encountered but that was to be expected cif they'd be in stasis for so however long they had been.

The world still continues on even if humans aren't around to see it, a fact Rowin could see with his own eyes.

Rowin stopped as his next target or rather location came into view, another large building standing higher than the rest. He quickly noted that one side of the structure looked damaged but it was also being supported by a large tree trunk growing out its side.

"RO I've arrived at the next location." Rowin informed his comrade, "The other mapping system is fully operational correct?"

"Affirmative, systems are green on all indicators, fully functional and operational. Scanned data is coming in as it should." RO answered his pilots query. "How is your company Pilot?"

Rowin shifted his body slightly to allow a quick peek at the two androids currently guarding him. 2B stood close behind him however her attention was focused on the surrounding area, she must be surveying the area for any threats she could spot, that was Rowins thoughts anyway. 9S however was actually looking in Rowins direction meaning he caught Rowins quick peek at the two. Although Rowin couldn't tell what 9S was thinking, or processing to be exact, his expression showed one of curiosity. If Rowin was a betting man he'd put money on it that 9S was the friendlier of the pair while 2B was the more professional one.

"They're both fine, if crashing some personal space at times." He responded to his titan friend, his tone somewhat sarcastic in nature, "As long as they don't start swinging blades in that personal space we're all good."

"Noted." Said RO, he clearly caught the sarcasm but he noted his statement regardless.

Rowin glanced over to the two androids, "We're moving."

2B swiftly moved past him to observe the direction they were heading, watching for any hostiles along Rowins chosen path. Once she'd verified it was clear she informed Rowin.

"The path is clear to proceed sir." She merely turned her head in his direction, she kept herself facing the way Rowin had chosen, keeping herself in front of him. Rowin figured she was doing this as a way to shield him of sorts.

Rowin gave her a nod of confirmation before moving passed her. 2B immediately followed behind. 9S lagged behind for a second before quickly moving to follow, he caught up to 2Bs side.

"Sooo," 9S began in an attempt to start a conversation. However he was quickly shut down.

"9S don't," 2B warned, "Focus on the mission." The group continued their brisk walk to their destination. Rowin taking point of the group, 2B would have argued she should be the one to do it but she didn't want to argue with him since this was his operation and she wanted to remain focused on her tasks instead of bickering over something so small.

"But 2B! This is a chance of a lifetime!" Rowin raised an eyebrow at that line, since when does an android say something like that? Do they have a lifetime? 9S continued, drawing Rowin from his thoughts, "We should get to know as much about humans as we can, when will we ever meet a human like this again?"

Just as 2B was about to shut him down on his attempt to converse with Rowin he, himself, spoke instead. "What exactly would you like to ask me?" Asked Rowin, both curious as to what he wanted to know and interested in what he might be able to learn in return.

2B remained silent, although she didn't want any chit chat if the human wanted to speak they'd speak back. That was the only case that would be acceptable in her mind, otherwise focus on the humans mission and protect him.

"Hmmm," 9S hummed for a second in contemplation, where to begin?! "Maybe start with telling us about yourself?" 9S asked, not the best place for him to start but it'll lead to where he wants. Hopefully.

Rowin noted 2B didn't respond to 9Ss question, instead letting him go. Was it because he was okay with it? Or was she low key interested herself?

"That's a broad question," Rowin countered first, "There's a lot of ways that could go." He clarified. The group was nearing the building now, soon the second antenna would be deployed. Two down, two to go soon.

"Okay, how old are then?" 9S specified, once he got the ball rolling he had hoped Rowin would just answer the questions in a row then.

"Twenty five." He answered honestly, no point in hiding that right?

"Why do you wear that helmet? What is it for exactly?" 9S continued to question. His appearance was probably the most unusual thing, he didn't picture a human wearing what Rowin was.

"It's armor, a radio and a helpful hud." It was all true but just a bit vague although it did seem to quench that thirst since 9S just continued on. He mentioned the radio but he kept it a secret as to who he was communicating with.

"You're a human right?" He asked not really needing an answer to that question. "So then why are you here? You mentioned to the Commander you were on a mission, one she was not informed about. So are you a soldier?" That was a flurry of words thrown Rowins way but Rowin smoothly countered.

"I'm here because of an emergency, the mission itself being classified and of great urgency that I was sent to immediately deal with it. A Pilot was required and deployed due to this, hence why I'm here." A good answer, hopefully one that didn't raise suspicion. But he figured they'd be curious about the Pilot part.

Oddly enough it was 2B that spoke up before 9S could, "It would have been better to deploy an android team. It is not worth risking your own life regardless of the urgency."

"I agree, you humans shouldn't risk your lives for the sake of a mission. It would be of greater lose if you were to be killed on this endeavour over that of an android." 9S reinforcing his partners statement.

"It's not that simple." Was all Rowin responded with. The group reached the building Rowin had sighted as the next deployment location. His gaze turning up the face of the building to the roof, from here it looked more structurally stable than the last one he was on.

"We're here." He announced to his two allies, 2B completely refocusing her attention.

"What is it you want us to do?" She asked awaiting his orders.

Rowin wasn't one to normally give orders but it would seem he'd have to adapt, "Secure the area while I make my way to the roof." Rowin began, turning to 2B and 9S. "I'll be up there for a few minutes, clear?"

"Understood." 2B replied with firstly, "However, it is a needlessly risky option for us to leave you unattended. We were giving orders to safeguard you on your mission. Would it not be wiser to stay by your side?" 9S found it odd to hear 2B say that, she had been given an order but she chose to question it, slightly. That wasn't very like her but he put it down to her prioritizing his safety over following his orders.

"I can handle myself." Rowin replied to 2Bs concerns. This slightly surprised the two androids, Rowin blatantly denied assistance despite the possible dangers on the surface. Machines could easily ambush him if he wasn't careful, did he not care?. "Hold down the area, I'll be back as soon as I can."

Rowin turned to the building he planned to climb, he had already noticed this building was more structurally sound than the last so Rowin would quickly ascend to the top. Wordlessly Rowin ran at the building, surprising his android allies, he leapt into the air and jump boosted up to just above the second floor. He pushed off the wall before aiming his grapple hook upward to the ledge of the building. Perfectly fired, the grapple hit near the edge of the roof swiftly pulling Rowin upward.

2B and 9S had watched Rowin scale the building with ease, it was impressive to see considering they couldn't have done that the way Rowin did.

"2B," 9S began, "What kind of human do you think he is?" He asked as they both began to scout the area around the base of the building.

2B didn't say anything but she was low key curious herself now after seeing that little climbing display. He was skilled to say the least.

 **/_\**

Rowin pulled himself up over the edge of the building finding a partially collapsed roof, figures the building was intact but the roof he needed was damaged.

"RO, I've reached the second deployment location. Antenna should be active soon." He informed his titan over the radio. Rowin slowly walked across the more secure roofing over to the corner he chose to deploy the antenna, this time it would be quicker now that Rowin knew how it functioned.

"Copy that Pilot." RO began the transmission, "I suggest you begin taking into consideration where to find a power supply for the bunker." Another one of Rowins primary objectives, it wouldn't be long before that would become the main focus.

However Rowin had already taken that into consideration, "I've given that some thought, what about the hydroelectric dam? If we can get that operational I could charge the ion battery I have with me from within the station and use that to jump start the bunkers main reactor." Rowin knew of a dam that was in the area from before he was put into stasis, if it was still standing then that would be the best place to go for a power source.

"A good lead Rowin, that could work better than you might have originally thought." RO stated which Rowin found curious. He listened closely as he began to deploy the second antenna. "If you could restore operation to the dam the bunker could leech power from it restoring power to the bunker until you can return to restart the main reactor with the ion power cell."

Rowin paused, the antenna rose from it's small device, "I thought the bunker was on an independant system, how can we divert power from the power plant to the bunker?" While Rowin was usually in the know, the bunker itself he didn't fully understand. He didn't have time to read up on the bunker to fully comprehend the system both before he was put into stasis and after when he woke up again.

"It is however the bunker was designed to leech off other systems and mainframes if required. It's subtly linked to the outside world, allowing the bunker to consume whatever resources it needs to survive. The bunker was built to last by whatever means required." RO explained as the deployable antenna finished its cycle. That was two down, two to go.

"So if we restore the hydroelectric plant the bunker can regain power?" Rowin half asked, standing away from the antenna, glancing around the environment from his view atop the structure.

"Correct but it will take some time, it's a leeching system meaning it is not a direct link. The amount of power the bunker will drain will take time, systems will come back depending on which is prioritized first.." RO informed his pilot, "Permission to prioritise bunker systems when power is restored?"

"Understood and your request is accepted RO." Rowin countered to his friends question, "Once I find another location for the third antenna I'll head toward the dam. I'll deploy the fourth antenna at the station itself, that would save time in more than one way." Rowin walked to the edge and peered over it slightly, he spotted the two androids waiting at the bottom. From what he could tell the male, 9S, seemed to be speaking with 2B, he moved his body more often whilst he did. 2B on the other hand remained mostly still. "I'm moving out again."

"Copy that Pilot, watch your back." RO responded, he had a plan for when his pilot restored power but until then all he could do was watch and listen, assisting his pilot when he could.

RO went silent again leaving his pilot to retrain his efforts, during that brief statement from RO Rowin could see that both 2B and 9S had noticed him at the edge of the structure looking down at them.

Before regrouping Rowin took a calculating gaze around the environment from his vantage point, his gaze rested on the direction the dam would be if his memory of the landscape was good. He noted a small clustering of buildings, with one that stood only a floor or two higher than the others around it, a decent distance from his current position, he decided that was where the third antenna would be deployed before making their way to the power station. Finally his gaze came back upon 2B and 9S at the base of the building.

' _Alright, lets see if they know anything about the dam._ ' He thought, Rowin figured the dam had a chance of being destroyed or severely damaged, possibly being swarmed by machines as well. 2B and 9S might have some knowledge of what might await him at the power plant.

Rowin then immediately jumped off the ledge, much to the horror of the androids below. He came down fast, you could see 2B and 9S move toward his landing spot, they were probably attempting to catch him or something however as Rowin neared the fact approaching ground his jumpkit burst to life slowing his decent with no issue.

He landed with a tiny thud in front of the two androids. By their facial expressions you could tell what they were going to say before they even said it. 9S looked more impressed than anything else, his curiosity would probably take hold of him wondering how Rowin survived the fall. 2B on the other hand didn't seem at all impressed, rather she looked annoyed.

"Sir, that was needlessly reckless. You should have taken the stairs instead of jumping from the roof, what would have happened if you were to get hurt?" She almost sounded like she was scolding him for his behaviour which Rowin only found odd.

9S decided now was the time to comment, "It was reckless sir, " He directed toward Rowin before turning to 2B "But it was impressive in his defense, I haven't seen someone do that before." His comment clearly didn't impress 2B however.

"It was reckless 9S, nothing more. We were tasked with protecting him, that is our mission from the Commander and it's the purpose of us androids. If anything were to happen to him we would have failed that mission." 2B countered her comrade.

"It's fine," Rowin spoke to them both, "I've been trained to do things like that, I'll be alright. It's apart of the job." His words didn't appear to defuse the situation instead just making them more slightly confused. "Come on," He continued, "I've located the next location we need to reach." Rowin completely glossed over 2Bs complaint of his recklessness.

"Lead the way sir, we'll stick close behind." 9S stated, "Mind if I ask a few more questions along the way?"

"Be my guest." Rowin responded before he began to walk in the direction of

2B didn't respond immediately this time, instead choosing to silent walk up to Rowin. She stuck by his side as they walked. While Rowin did notice that he didn't call her out on it, he figured she was the one to take the mission more seriously from what he'd seen of the two thus far but she clearly didn't like how Rowin had acted moments ago.

Regardless, Rowin lead them in the direction of the third antenna deployment location. Along the way he would have to ask do they know anything about the dam and if it was still operational.

 **/_\**

Rowin lead the pair through back alleys and streets in what he believed was the fasted way possible. But he remained vigilant, every corner he peered around he surveyed the area for any hostiles. Luckily this far he hadn't need to fight any machines.

"Sir, what is this urgent mission exactly? It would help if we knew what the details were." 9S asked as the group moved.

"Let me ask you something first," Rowin initially responded as he aimed his rifle down the street, examining all the ledges and vantage points he could to make sure no enemies were hiding there, "There is a dam not far from here correct? Is it still operational?"

"The dam is structurally sound but as far as the data we've collected on that area it is not currently operational, we're not even sure if it can be repaired." 9S explained to the human, "What does that place have to do with your mission sir?"

"Part of my mission is to restore power to that dam as well as charge this," He pointed to the depleted ion battery attached to his lower back above his jumpkit, "Within the station a generator should be able to charge it to full power."

"But why restore the dam? It's not connected to anything of importance. It doesn't power anything of importance." 9S stated more confused than anything, not entirely sure why a human would want to repair such a place.

The group moved onto the main street leading to the cluster of buildings Rowin had spotted early, they weren't far from deploying the third antenna.

Just as the group approached a small junction between the buildings Rowin raised his hand silently in a fist, signaling for them both to stop. For now 9Ss question would go unanswered.

9S and 2B both immediately stopped, 2B that had been rather silent this whole time became more lively closing in on Rowin. While Rowin didn't mind the distance he was more focused on what lay ahead. He aimed his rifle toward a small group of machines that blocked their path, they only numbered eight in total but one of them was a medium sized machine wielding a scrap spear.

"Machines ahead, eight total. They haven't seen us." Rowin stated, you could tell Rowin was a soldier by the way he said that. Both 9S and 2B drawing their blades, 2B drawing the larger of the two blades she carried.

"Scans from your visor show they're hostile machine lifeforms. Engage with cation Rowin." RO spoke over the radio, informing his pilot that the machines in front of him were hostile.

"9S, stay with the Major," 2B directed her comrade, she clearly planned to deal with the machine problem ahead of them. "Protect him while I deal with those machines." She stepped in front of both 9S and Rowin ready to charge down the group of machines and destroy them all.

But Rowin placed a gentle hand on her shoulder, "Hold it, I can deal with this." Rowin stated however this didn't sit well with either 2B or 9S for that matter.

"Negative, you must remain in a safe area sir. We can't allow you put yourself in harms way." 2B countered, surprisingly assertive.

"Recommendation: Unit 9S should take the human to a safer vantage point while unit 2B moves in to dispatch the machine threat." 2Bs pod chimned in as if to agree with her.

"Not gonna happen." Rowin argued back. Ignoring his two android comrades he stepped up beside 2B and swiftly examining the area. Within that few seconds Rowin formulated a plan of attack.

"Sir, you must-" 2B attempted to say before being cut off.

"Follow and engage once I do." Rowin said as he took off surprisingly quickly. Immediately fearing for his safety 2B and 9S swiftly followed.

However as they closed the gap Rowin darted off to the side by one of the buildings, he jumped and boosted up onto the wall and began wall running.

As he wall ran he fired upon the machines, specifically aiming for the head of the medium sized machine. Firing a small burst of shots each hit their mark quickly putting the machine out of commission, its body hitting the floor with a loud clang before exploding into scrap.

As Rowin came to the end of his wall run he pushed of the structure and threw himself toward the now alerted machine group. They all turned to him, their eyes turning red as they all spotted him.

Not slowing down Rowin boosted mid air and fired at another one of the smaller machines, riddling its body with bullets. He landed close by another two machines but they were swiftly dealt with as 2B and 9S rushed by slicing the two machines up.

"Sir, you shouldn't engage in direct combat!" 2B said, her frustration with him showing slightly. "Pod! Fire!" 2B directed her pod to fire upon one of the smaller machines that was the furthest away.

Ignoring 2B for the moment Rowin moved between the two androids, firing on another one of the small machines. Between the three of them they'd destroyed six of the eight machines within seconds.

2B dashed toward the last two machines, slicing through them both before kicking them into the air and unleashing a flurry of slashes and cuts that finished them both off.

As she landed she immediately turned to Rowin, who was currently standing still as he did a magazine check of his carbine. 9S saw 2Bs expression so he took a step back away from the two, he knew not to cross an angry or irritated 2B. That was common sense.

"Sir, do **not** attempt to engage in combat again." 2B scolded Rowin once again, "Leave the combat to us androids, more specifically myself. I'm a battle unit, that is my purpose, it's what I'm designed for." 2B sheathed the blade onto her back, both blades hovering behind her. "No matter how urgent this mission you've been assigned is it isn't worth your life."

This seemed to be a growing trend. "It is." Rowin responded quietly, neither android hearing him. After checking the magazine of his rifle he replaced the clip before turning to 2B. "2B, I understand you wish to protect and that's your mission but to try and pull me away from combat will only do more harm than good." He explained, both 2B and 9S listening closely, "I can fight, I can survive. You want to protect me right? Then let's make an agreement, I'll let you do what you must to protect me but you need to trust me in return. You need to trust me to handle myself. Only then will this work out." He flicked his carbine barrel from his feet, to 2Bs and then 9Ss to emphasize the three of them.

The androids looked between each before turning back to Rowin, he spoke once more. "Do you trust me?"

"We do sir."

"Of course."

9S and 2B responded respectively, both androids seemed to brighten up, if you could call it that. Of the two 9S seemed to be excited by the concept that a human trusted him, 2B on the other hand didn't show any drastic reaction but it still was probably good for her to hear.

"Then I trust you." Rowin added, with the relationship between the three of them better understood Rowin turned his attention toward the sun. He noted how low it was in the sky, there wasn't much daylight left, if his observations were correct he'd only be able to deploy the third antenna and begin heading toward the dam before night fell. He'd have to consider whether or not to rest or just keep going through the night when the time came but for now he should focus on the third antenna.

"We need to move." Rowin said, both the androids moved to his side.

"Understood." 2B replied with her usually statement. 9S didn't say anything but Rowin figured he was of the same mindset.

"Good work Pilot," RO spoke over his helmet radio, "Improving your standing with these two androids will surely come to benefit you on your mission. Having allies in the field can prove vital." Rowin didn't need to respond and his titan knew that, he just wanted to share his piece of mind to his pilot.

The trio left the area in the direction of the final antenna deployment location. While Rowin was cautious about his approach he knew time was limited so his pace quickened than before, he at least wanted to get the third antenna deployed by nightfall.

 **/_\**

It was only a few minutes at a running speed to get to the next location, luckily as a pilot running was nothing for Rowin. His endurance was truly inhuman at times but that's the kind of training they put through. Only the best survived.

The trio reached the structure Rowin had selected earlier, in the surrounding area the buildings all looked the same. The only difference was the building Rowin had selected was slightly taller.

"We're here." He informed his two android comrades.

Rowin, quite intelligently, pulled out one of his pulse blades and flung it half way up the structure impaling itself in the concrete wall. His visor lit up seeing the blades pulse course through the tower. This revealed that there were no machines within, meaning it was clear for Rowin to proceed to the top with no danger of an ambush on his way up.

2B and 9S however couldn't see the pulse, all they saw was Rowin fling a kunai at a wall.

"Allow me to proceed to the roof whilst clearing every floor before you make your way inside sir." 2B stated, wanting to see for herself that there was no immediate threat to the humans life.

"Negative, it's clear." Rowin countered, 2B seemed as though she was about to retort but stopped herself.

"Understood. Would you have us secure the area around the base of the structure again?" This time she didn't question his judgment, this only showed she was attempting to trust Rowin. If he said it was fine then it just might be, although she would still rather check for herself for his sake she'd trust him on this.

"Not this time, I want you both to follow me up. I want to explain a few things 9S over here," He gestured to 9S with his hand, "Wanted to know a bit more about the mission, I'll share a few of the details so you both have a better understanding of the task I've been assigned."

"That will be of great help." 9S responded, "It'll help us be more efficient on the mission the more we understand."

"Meet me at the top." Was all Rowin responded with before he held his arm up and fired his grapple hook once more, hitting near the top of the building he reeled himself in, flying up the side of the structure. With the last little gap he boosted himself up the last part to the ledge before pulling himself up.

2B and 9S were left standing on ground level as they saw Rowin ascend the small tower with ease.

"Come on 9S, we're not keeping the Major waiting." 2B hurried her comrade as she entered the building and swiftly ascended the stairwell, 9S only a few feet behind her the whole way. It took them only a couple of seconds to reach the roof. As they reached Rowin they found him in a crouching position, he seemed to be holding some device neither 2B or 9S had seen before.

"What's that your holding sir?" 9S asked curious as to what Rowin was messing with however it was 9Ss Pod that answered him.

"The device in the humans grasp is a deployable antenna used as a signal booster, receiver and a sonar mapping system." The Pod explained.

Rowin turned to the pod, not bad. Everything it just said was true and accurate and it figured all that out just by first glance, he didn't even have to name the thing.

"Your Pod is correct." The clamps on the device sprung out and dug itself into the concrete of the roof as the antenna hidden within began to rise out of it. Rowin stood and took a single step back, "To clear things up, I've been assigned a mission to boost communication capabilities in the region as well as restore power at the dam. I must deploy four of these communication systems and then proceed to restore the hydroelectric plant." He pulled out the final device he had left to deploy to emphasize there was one more to go. " Both of these objectives are of great urgency as if I can't completely these objectives then more human lives will be put at risk."

His statement surprised the androids, if this mission was so important, one where human lives were at risk, then why was YoRHa not immediately informed and deployed? With a threat to human lives being the price of failure all of YoRHa would have been deployed to complete this mission if required.

"Other humans are in danger?" 9S asked in disbelief, how could they not know this?

"Sir, you should have informed the Commander of this information if she was not aware. She would have sent several units ahead to deal with the dams repairs while you finished deploying those communication devices. That would have been far more efficient." 2B said back to Rowin after hearing his small brief of the mission.

"Possibly but I was the best chance of success at the time." Rowin countered, "I was given the task so I was going to complete it." The antenna finished its cycle, meaning the group could leave anytime now.

"But that's just putting you at risk sir." 9S countered, "Even if you were likely to be successful it's still reckless to send a single human to the surface." This was all very odd to hear, human lives were in danger so they sent another human to risk his life to save theirs? Did they not value this humans life as much?

"Regardless, I'm going to complete my mission and you two have been assigned to help me." Rowin moved over to the androids. "Can either of you possibly lead me to the power plants location?" Rowin didn't have an exact memory of where it was, he knew the direction it was in but it was better to have a precise location over guesswork.

"Affirmative sir, we can guide you to the power plant. We'll move on your orders." 2B stated, preparing to leave at a moment's notice.

"Copy that." He responded to 2B before speaking to RO over his helmet radio. His helmet had the capability to mute itself so his voice couldn't be heard very well on the outside whilst he spoke to his titan. "RO, the third antenna is deployed, making our way to the power plant now." He informed his partner.

"Copy that Pilot, currently your remaining operational timeframe is just over two days before you should return to the bunker however that could be extended for recon purposes." RO told his pilot, "It might give you the tactical advantage to learn as much as you can from the androids, this resistance camp that was mentioned before could hold hidden value." He was basically informing his pilot that he should investigate further if possible.

"Understood RO, I'll keep that in mind." He responded to his titan, this was a chance Rowin himself wanted to take. The more he understood about the world around him the better.

"Alright, we're moving." Rowin said to the two androids, "Lead on." He gestured for the two androids to take the lead, while he knew it was risky to trust these since they could easily lead him astray his instinct said to trust them at the moment.

2B and 9S nodded to the human, it was 2B that took the lead. She was the first head toward the stairs leaving 9S and Rowin to follow behind.

It wouldn't be long before nightfell, Rowin would have to consider resting or travel through the night. Either way his mission was getting closer to its end. But this was only the beginning, not only for him but for the rest of the survivors in the bunker.

Their survival had only begun.

* * *

 _C4: End_

 _Chapter done, sorry for the wait but hopefully the next chapter will come out that bit quicker. Also a quick (late) happy new year to everyone reading this, hope this year improves over the last one for you all._

 _I'd like to continue by thanking everyone who has read, followed, favorited and reviewed this story, I honestly didn't expect this story to take off the way it has but I'm pleasantly surprised and appreciate the support, so cheers!_

 _Picture: NierFall (Search it up)_

 _Review Responses:_

 _Review Voters: Thanks for voting in the reviews, all your votes have been accounted for._

 _Clockwork Unity: Appreciate the character. I'll have them introduced as soon as the story allows it and makes sense for him to appear._

 _Killer Hamster: His titan will be showing up soon, I doubt RO would leave his pilot out in a hostile environment. So expect him to arrive soon enough, until then Rowin is on his own. (For the most part.)_

 _HALO343 (Guest): Thanks for the compliments, it's impressive to see my story spread to many different countries the way it has._

 _Exanime Draco: That was one hell of a review you gave so thank you for that, it was interesting to see your view and opinion on the matter as well as the compliments you gave. We already spoke over PM but I just wanted to say thanks again._

 _Astrobot1745: That is somewhat true I suppose, Rowin isn't like that for sure. Your vote was counted and added to the results too._

 _Tomkatan: Good to know you like that aspect of my writing, I'll try keep that theme going too. Humans aren't a normal thing to see, damn right the androids are going to react the way they did. Rowin doesn't realize it yet but he's more important than he thinks._

 _Reminder: Poll vote for romance._

 _(As a little warning, if Harem wins_ _ **I**_ _ **will**_ _be the one to pick who's in it. It'll be an absolute max of five and it won't all be the top results of this poll either. I'll pick who it shall be for a multitude of reasons.)_

 _I've rambled on long enough so I'll wrap this up. Thanks again!_

 _AlcatrazDGold - Peace!_


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